Man and woman found dead in apparent murder-suicide in Paterson, police say

PATERSON — A man and woman were found shot to death in their apartment on Wednesday in what authorities described as an apparent murder-suicide.

The woman, 30, had been shot twice, and the 42-year-old man had one gunshot wound that apparently was self-inflicted, said Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes.

Their names were not released.

The victims may have been romantically involved but they were not married, Valdes said. She declined to disclose the location of the apartment, but the Paterson police said it was on East 18th Street.

“We will be interviewing friends and family members to see why this happened,” Valdes said.

Police officers were dispatched to the apartment shortly before 1:30 p.m. to check on the welfare of the woman, and when they arrived they discovered the bodies, Valdes said. The reason for the welfare check was not revealed.

“At this point, we don’t know if there was a history [of domestic violence] or if our office had conducted” an investigation in the past, Valdes said.

Valdes said the woman was the city’s first homicide death of 2013. She said late Wednesday said that they were waiting a report from the medical examiner to determine whether the man’s wound was self-inflicted.

“We don’t have any indication that there was another target or that the community is at risk,” Valdes said.

She expressed concern, however, that Wednesday’s incident appeared to be the third fatal domestic violence case reported in Passaic County in a matter of weeks.

On Christmas Day, a 60-year-old Clifton man shot his 61-year-old wife at the couple’s house on Byron Place house in Clifton. She survived, but he fatally shot himself.

On Dec. 11, a 39-year-old Paterson woman, Latasha Smith, was stabbed to death in her Butler Avenue home, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, a day after he was released from a halfway house. The former boyfriend, Raheem Jones , has pleaded not guilty to murder and weapons charges.